Railway-signal.



Patented Jan. 8, l90l.

J. WB IGLEY 8:. E. MCMAHON.

RAILWAY SIGNAL.

(Application filed Apr. 19, 1900.)

(No Mqdel.)

. WITNESSES! UNITED STATES PATENT Gretna.

JOHN WRIGLEY AND EDWARD McMAHoN', or ELM-IRA, NEW YORK.

RAILWAY- SIGNAL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 665,712, dated January 8, 190i. Application filed April 19, 1900. Serial No. 13,420. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, JOHN WRIGLEY and EDWARD MCMAHON, citizens of the United States, residing at Elmira, in the county of Chemung and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Railway-Signals and we do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to characters of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

Our invention relates to semaphore apparatus employed for railroad signaling; and it consists in a certain improvedconstruction of the apparatus of this nature referred to in United States Letters Patent No. 496,080, dated April 25, 1893, granted to John Wrigley.

In our present construction of the apparatus instead of connecting the revolving signal-lamp with the pivoted paddle and so making its proper operation dependent upon the operation of said paddle, as in said patented construction,we connect them, independently of each other, with a common actuating means, and provide, furthermore, for automatically throwing each of them to its danger position should its connection with said actuating means get out of order. Besides the advantage here involved our present construction possesses the important qualities of being more positive in its action and more easily operated than is said patented construction.

We have fully illustrated our invention in the accompanying drawings, wherein corresponding letters of reference indicate like parts, and wherein- Figure 1 is a view of our improved semaphore apparatus. Fig. 2 is an enlarged view showing in detail a certain bracket and a portion of the mechanism for transmitting actuation to the lamp. Figs. 3 and 4 are, respectively, a sectional view and a view in front elevation of a certain arm constituting a portion of said bracket. Fig. 5 is a plan view of a collar that is shown in Fig. 4 and that is carried by a certain horizontal shaft which has bearings in said bracket. Fig. 6 is a detail view of a portion of the connecting means be- The reference character a in the drawings designates the mast or pole upon which the semaphore apparatus is mounted. To this mast are secured three brackets 19, c, and (1. Upon the bracket 1) is fulcrnmed a balancelever 6, one end of which carries an adjustable weight fand to the other end of which is adapted to be connected a wire or other flexible connection g, which extends to the operating-tower. A second wire g is secured to the balance-lever e between its f ulcrum and the weight and extends likewise to the tower, from where it is operated, and is assisted in its pulling by said counterweights f, as will bemanifest. Upon thebracketcisfulcrumed a lever 72., said lever carrying the signal-paddle 'i at one of its ends and at the other of its ends an adjustable counterpoise j. The bracket cl consists of a base-plate it, whereby said bracket is secured to the mast by bolts Z, and carries arms m, 'n, and 0, said arms forming integral projections of the plate. The arms n and 0 project in a horizontal plane from the plate and are connected by a strengtheningweb 10, while the arm m is disposed above said arms n and 0, another integral strengthening-web q connecting said arm and the web 10 and being disposed at right angles to' the latter.

Inthe arms 02 and 0 is journaled a horizontal shaft 1', carrying between said arms a bevel-gear 5, while in the end of the arm m is journaled a vertical spindle or shaft t, the lower endof which carries another bevel-gear 11,, which is in mesh with and rests upon the bevelgear 8. Upon the upper end of the spindle or shaft 25 is detachably mounted a lamp 2;,- so secured in place as to revolve with said spindle. This lamp is provided with the usual red and green or other colored lenses to for signaling purposes, which are disposed at right angles to each other, and with the small bulls-eyes 00, whereby the operator can see that the lamp is burning.

The lever h, carrying the paddle 't', is connected with the balance-lever e by a connecting-rod y, pivotally connected to said lever h ,at one of its ends and adj ustably connected at the other of its ends with a pivoted arm 5 on the balance-lever.

One end of the shaft 1' carries a bifurcated lever 1, (see Figs. 1 and 7,) having fingers 2 and 2?, the latter of which is preferably weighted,proj ectin g at right angles from each other and at whose junction there is formed a curved recess 3. 4 is a vertically-movable slide-rod that works between a pair of integral guides 5, projecting from the arm n, and that is provided with a roller 6, adapted to impinge against the fingers of said lever 1, so as to shift the lever and rock the shaft r. The downward movement of the slide-rod is limited bya stop 7, that is adapted to impinge against the top of the arm n. It should be remarked, furthermore, that the slide-rod is normally held down by a weight 8, which it carries, and that said slide-rod isoperatively connected with the balance-lever e, which, it will be observed, is the common actuating means for the lamp and the paddle through the medium of a pitman 9, pivotally connected at one of its ends to the lower end of the slide-rod and at the other of its ends to a stud 10, projecting from a T-joint 10, which the connecting-rod y carries.

In order to positively limit the rotation of the shaft r, the semicircular portion of the arm 0, which is immediate the shaft, is cut away to form a recess, as at 11 in Figs. 4 and 5, said shaft carrying a collar 12, rigidly secured thereto by a pin 13, which has a quad rant-shaped projection 14: working in said recess.

In the modification shown in Fig. 7 we secure the shaft r adjustably in vertical slots 15 in the arms n and 0, and in lieu of the bevel-gear s we secure on said shaft a plain pinion 16, which is adapted to mesh with another pinion 17 on an auxiliary shaft 18, also journaled in said arms and carrying a bevelpinion 19, which meshes with the bevel-pinion to. This construction has especial value from the fact that it permits of changing the shaft o carrying the pinion 16, for a shaft carrying a pinion of a diiferent size in case it is necessary to vary the relative degrees of movement of the lamp and paddle.

It will be understood, of course, that the operation of the entire mechanism depends upon the balance-lever e, which when it moves ef- 1 feet-s the movement of the paddle 1' through the medium of the connecting-rod y and the turning of the lamp '2; through the medium of said connecting-rod, the pitman 9, the slide- 1 rod 4:, the coacting pin 6, and bifurcated lever 1, and the gearing.

broken at any time while said paddle and lamp are at safety, it will be seen'that the weight, which We term a compensator, will automatically throw these parts to the dan-i ger position, thus warning the railroad-men.

From the foregoing it can be seen that the 1 lamp after having been rotated ninety de-- grees comes to a standstill and is locked in said position, while the paddle i will continue to move upward (or downward) to its highermost (or lowermost) position,which is of great value in signaling and will be well understood by those familiar with the art.

We do not wish to be limited to the use of the specific form of lever 1 shown in the drawings, for by increasing the number of and properly disposing the fingers and also providing the recess 3 between them instead of the lamp being thrown .to but two positions and showing two colors it canbe made to be movable to several positions, showing several difierent colors.

Having thus fully described our invention,

what we claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a signaling apparatus, the combinati'on,'with a support, of an actuating mechan ism, a paddle-carrying lever fulcrumed on said support, a revolving lamp journaled on said support, a slide-rod carried by said support, operative connection between said lamp and the slide rod, and power transmitting mechanism connecting said actuating mechanism with said lever and slide-rod, substantially as described.

2. 'In a signaling apparatus, the combination, with a support, of an actuating mechanism, a paddle-carrying lever fulcrumed on said support, a revolving lamp journaled on said support, a gravity-actuated slide-rod carried by said support, operative connection between said lamp-and the slide-rod, a rod conmeeting said lever and the actuating mechanism, and operative connecting means between said rod and the slide-rod, substantially as described.

3. In a signaling apparatus, the combination, with a suitable support, of an actuating mechanism, a paddle-carrying lever fulcrumed on said support, a revolving lamp journaled on said support, and power-transmitting mechanism connecting said actuating mechanism with said lever and the lamp, said operative connection comprising a sliderod having a projection and a bifurcated lever receiving said projection, substantially as described.

4. In a signaling apparatus, the combination, with a suitable support, of an actuating mechanism, a paddle-carrying lever fulcru med on said support,a revolvinglampjournaled on said support, a slide-rod carried by said support, operative connection between said lamp and the slide-rod, a rod operatively connecting said lever and the actuating mech- Should the connection between the paddle and the lamp and the actuating-lever e be;

anism, and operative connection between said rod and the slide-rod, said rod and the sliderod being movable in substantially the same direction, substantially as described.

5. In a signaling apparatus, the combination, with a suitable support, of an actuating mechanism, a paddle-carrying lever fulcrumed on said support, a revolving lamp journaled on said support, a shaft also journaled on said support and operatively connected to said lamp, a lever fixed to said shaft, a slide-rod carried by said support and operatively engaging said last-named lever, a rod operatively connecting said first-named lever and the actuating mechanism, and operative connection between said rod and the sliderod, said rod and the slide-rod being movable in substantially the same direction, substantially as described.

6. In a signaling apparatus, the combination, with a suitable support, of an actuating mechanism, a paddle-carrying lever fulcrumed on said support, a revolving lamp journaled on said support, a shaft also journaled on said support and operatively connected to said lamp, a bifurcated lever fixed on said shaft, a slide-rod carried by said support and provided with a projection working in the bifurcated portion of said lever, and operative connecting means between said actuating mechanism and said paddle-carrying lever and the slide-rod, substantially as described.

7. In a signaling apparatus, the combination, with a suitable support, of an actuatinglever fulcrumed on said support, a weighted paddle-carrying lever also fulcrumed on said support, a revolving lamp journaled on said support, a shaft operatively connected to said lamp, a bifurcated lever fixed on said shaft,

a weighted slide-rod guided in said support.

and carrying a projection working in the bifurcated portion of said lever, a rod connecting the paddle-carrying lever and the actuating-lever, and a pitman connecting said rod and the slide-rod, substantially as described.

8. In a signaling apparatus, the combination, with a suitable support, of a lamp journaled in said support, a shaft also journaled in said support, a bifurcated lever carried by said shaft, a slide-rod guided in said support and having a projection, said projection being adapted to work in the bifurcated portion of said lever, operative connection between said lamp and the shaft, and means for actuating said slide-rod, substantially as described.

In testimony that We claim the foregoing We have hereunto set our hands this 16th day of April, 1900.

JOHN WRIGLEY. EDWARD MOMAHON.

Witnesses:

N. H. KAHLEN, WM. F. SQUIRE. 

